Littlest Voyagers
by masked-spangler
Summary: Crossover with Star Trek Voyager. When an injured Aeryn and her 11 year old son get stranded by a wormhole accident, it's Voyager to the rescue. D'Argo finds a friend in young Naomi Wildman, but what is really going on with Aeryn?
1. Chapter 1

Littlest Voyagers

We were frelled. It was the first time I had ever gotten to do anything more than just sit there, and what had happened? We had gotten frelled, big-time frelled, major mo-fo fahrbot frelled. I didn't even know what had gone wrong yet. One minute we're flying back from a supply run, on our way to dock with Moya, Mom teasing me about how people shouldn't get to be co-pilots until they were big enough to fire a pulse rifle without needing a training sight, and the next minute she's frowning at the display, her hands jumping back in a fritz of blue sparks and even bluer light, and then…

Then I opened my eyes, and it was obviously later. Emergency lights were blinking on the floor of the transport pod, and wires were hanging off of smoking displays. I looked out the window, and I didn't see Moya, and I didn't see any stars I recognized. I couldn't access the computer, or the communications array. It was frelling hot, too.

Mom was beside me. Her chair had come loose from its moorings in the whatever that had happened, but it was still upright, and she was slumped in her seat, still strapped in. She had smallish trickle of blood trailing from her right ear down the side of her face. It had already dried to a flat, brown colour, so we must have been out of it for at least an arn or so. And she had some nasty-looking burns on both of her hands. They looked frelling painful. She should have been screaming, even a bad-ass like her should have been. But she wasn't awake.

I shook her gently. "Mom?"

No answer. I poked her ankle with the side of my boot. "Mom? Mom, wake up!"

She made a small groaning noise.

I dug in my pack for a bottle of water, and pulled my bandana off my neck. I wet it and held it to her cheek. "Mom, it's okay. I got you."

She groaned again, then smiled a little, reaching for my wet hand. "Umm. That feels nice."

I moved closer, keeping the damp cloth pressed to her face. "You okay?"

She squirmed a little, starting to wake up some. "What…happened?"

"Frell if I know. We…"

"D'Argo! Your language!"

"What? It's not like you don't say it."

She squirmed again, struggling a little against the confines of her restraint. I put down the bandana and un-strapped her. Her cheeks were red and her eyes looked sweaty.

"It's hot," I said.

She nodded.

"Too hot?"

There was a microt's pause, then she nodded again. Frelling heat delirium. Great. I had to work fast.

I opened the rest of my water bottle, and made her drink some. She'd managed to wiggle out of her jacket, and I poured some of the water onto the fabric of her undershirt. Her hands were twitching.

"You should drink some too," she said. Her eyes kept pinching shut, and I wished she would stop shaking. "It's so hot…"

"Half-human, Mom. Can't get heat delirium."

"No, but you can still get hot. Drink some."

I took a sip. Mom smiled. "Good boy. Now, let's call Dad."

"Can't. Comms are down."

"Are they? Listen, D'Argo, we'll have to…to launch…" She bit her lip. "There's a word for it. I know there's a word…"

"Mom, it's okay."

No! Frell. The beacon, that's what's it's called. Communications beacon. Can…launch one manually."

"I don't know how to do that."

She slumped back into her seat again. "I know." Then she closed her eyes.

"Mom! Mom!"

She reached over the side of her chair, probed beneath it with her damaged hand. "D'Argo…the vid…"

I remembered at the same time she did and shoved her hand away, resting it on the wet cloth of her shirt and then feeling underneath the seat with my own hand. I came away after a moment with a wrapped, flat package which I opened to get out the vid-chip. There was one in every transport pod, and Mom's prowler too, but I had never had to use one yet…

Mom was so out of it. I sprinkled her with more of the water, then got my portable vid player out of my bag and plugged in the chip. There was Dad on my screen.

"Key, kiddo," he said. "If you're watching this, that means something's gone wrong. I hope I'm with you, or Mom's with you, even if we're…well, if you're watching this, it means you might be alone, and you need to send Moya a message. When Mom and I planned this thing, we assumed…well, we had to assume you'd get a worst case scenario. Comms are down. Mom and I can't help you. It's all on you, little man. Just remember that whatever happens, Mom and I love you, and we're so, so proud of you, kiddo. So, manually coding a distress beacon, here's what you do…"

I did it. Then I let myself get sleepy too.

There were voices in the cockpit when I woke up again, and it wasn't Dad or Chi or Jothee or anyone like that. A light was shining in my eyes, and a shadow moved closer.

"Don't be afraid," said a voice. "We found your distress beacon. We are here to help you."

I rubbed my eyes, still groggy from the heat. "Mom, she's…"

"His language is not being picked up by the universal translator," the voice said. My eyes were clearing now, and I could make out a dark face with dark hair and long, bumpy ridges on its forehead. Not Sebecean or Luxan or Nebari or anything like that. I switched over to English, which was my best other one.

"I'm okay, it's my mom, she's…"

The face was rapidly coming into focus, and I could see that it looked like a woman, although Dad always says you should never assume with species you haven't seen before. She touched my arm, then stood up and turned to her companions.

"Is the other one all right? He says it's his mother…"

"Translator sorted him out?" said another voice. "Okay, we're scanning her now…looks like some superficial burns and cuts, nothing serious. And some kind of heat stroke…"

"It's heat delirium," I interrupted. "Environmentals cut out on us. She's frelled."

Several eyes were staring at me. Her companion stepped into the dim beam of the emergency lighting. He was tall, with light brown hair and unmistakably Sebacean features. And he was looking at me like I was, as Dad would say, from Mars.

"Heat delirium," he repeated dumbly.

Now, it was my turn to look dumb. "You guys don't know about that? So, what, are you not Sebacean or something? You aren't, are you? Who ARE you?"

Again, he repeated after me. "Sebacean. Is that what you are?"

"She is," I said, indicating Mom. "I'm half. Look, can you get us out of here? Or help me get Environmentals fixed? Dad left a vid. But the heat, it's…"

"Right," the man said. "Rescue now, first contact later. B'Elanna, is he stable for transport?"

The woman nodded, and the man tapped his comm. again. "Voyager, you have our signal?"

A voice answered through his comm. It said 'Yes Sir' and I suddenly realized that it wasn't translator microbes kicking in. That was English! This Voyager, whatever it was, had actual humans on it!

And just as I had processed that, the guy and my mom disappeared in a puddle of sparkles. I screamed.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2

The woman, B'Elanna, leaned down and looked me in the eye, her hands gripping my shoulders.

"You're gonna be just fine," she said.

I nodded. "My mom, she…"

"Never transported before, huh? What's your name, little guy?"

"D'Argo. And I'm not little."

"And your mom?"

"She's Aeryn. Look, is she…"

She smiled and did the comm tapping thing too. A second later, I was blinking under a glare of bright, clean light. A bald man dressed like the other ones was standing in front of us.

"Please state the nature of the medical emergency," he said.

The man from the transport pod was already running a wand thing over Mom. I don't think she knew we were off the transport pod yet, but away from the heat, she was already waking up a little, and making small, whimpery noises. The bald guy hurried toward her, as B'Elanna explained.

"This is Aeryn, and her son D'Argo. They apparently had some sort of…incident aboard their shuttle, and…"

"Yes, very nice, an incident, but what are the injuries?" the bald man snapped.

"Mostly superficial wounds," the man with the wand thingy called out. "Some burns on her hands, and apparently something called heat delirium, whatever that is…"

"Sebacean? Never heard of it. Start up the dermal regenerator, Mr. Paris. We'll take care of the superficial wounds first, then see what we can do about the rest of this."

"You might want to crank up the air," I interrupted.

They suddenly remembered I was there. The man called Paris looked a little guilty, and said to me "Don't worry, little guy. We'll take care of your mom."

"That's great, thanks for that and everything, only just saying, that'll go faster if you crank up the air. Sebaceans can't process extreme heat. She won't start coming out of it until you cool her down a little."

Paris pressed some buttons on one of his consoles. "I'll run some cooling fluid through the panels in the bio-bed. I…"

He was interrupted when the doorway swooshed open and a tall woman with long, pulled back hair came in. Paris looked up from my mom and said "Captain!"

"Report, Mr. Paris. How are our vistors?"

"We're towing in their ship as we speak. The boy, D'Argo, appears to be uninjured. We're still examining his mother."

The new arrival crouched down on the floor beside me. "Hi there," she said.

I shrugged. "Hi."

"I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway, and this is my ship, the U.S.S. Voyager."

"Yeah, hi, I got all that, the ship and everything, it's very nice. But what are you? Cause I know you aren't PK, you didn't know about the heat delirium, and your translator microbes totally piked on Sebacean, so…"

The captain had that confused look that Mom gets a lot when dad and I get really into stuff. "It's nice to meet you, D'Argo. Our ship is equipped with a universal translator, do you know what that means? It means that we can understand you when you speak to us."

This lady had no clue at all. "Yeah, you understand me, all right. Because I am speaking to you in English! Are you humans? I think some of you might be humans. That's so cool. I've never seen another human. I mean, I've heard about them and all, but…"

"Oh?" she was smiling now. "Heard about them from whom?"

"My dad. I'm half, you know. Or, maybe you don't know. I mean, you have loads of scanners and thing, but your translator microbes are obviously defective, and your diagnosan doesn't know the first thing about treating a case of heat delirium…"

"I don't know what that means," she said, still smiling, but in a kind of serious way. "But you guessed right that some of us are human, D'Argo. Some of us are other species too though. Our ship is part of a Federation that's made up of all different races."

"Uh huh. Look, if it's gonna be awhile, can I go check on our transport pod? Mom's out, and I'm like the co-pilot, you know? So I gotta check on stuff. And I have to get our Comms working so we can call Dad to come and get us. Have you guys got some kind of consumables refrig I can borrow for a bit? Cause we were on a supply run, and some of it needs to be stored. Well, if the fire and the explosion and all that didn't frell it all to hell and Hezmana and everything…"

"Actually, we wanted to talk to you about happened," she said. "To you and your mother. To your ship."

"Yeah, so we were in the transport pod, and then there were sparks on Mom's display and this big blue light, and then I don't know cause I got knocked out or something. So can I go?"

She pulled up a stool, and then pulled up another one. "Come sit with me for a moment, D'Argo. D'Argo. That's an interesting name."

"He was this Luxan guy my mom and dad knew. He died saving a bunch of people and I got born while all that was going on. He has a son called Jothee who comes to visit us. He's my bud."

"I see. How old are you, D'Argo?"

"I'm turning eleven cycles in two monens and a half. Jothee's coming for my party and he's bringing me a qualta blade. A real one, not junior size. Dad doesn't think I'm ready for it, but he didn't think I was ready to be co-pilot either and today I was and I sent out the beacon and got us saved."

"Yes, you did. Saved from what, is the question. Can't you tell me anything else about what happened, D'Argo? How did your ship get damaged?"

"Blue light, like I said. Might have been a wormhole. We…oh, frell. Frell, frell, frell. Frell!"

She was watching me with that little smile again, but this wasn't funny at all. "My fault," I realized. "My fault…"

"How so?"

"Well, normally, I watch for those. That's kind of my…" I remembered, too late, about talking so much. Dad always says Mom is a little too paranoid about stuff like that and that it's great I have inherited his curious mind, but Mom is real hard-core about it, and…well, I hadn't given last names or anything. So that was good.

"Well, usually I watch for them," I finished, a little more cautiously. "But…"

"But?" the captain prodded.

I tried not to look at Mom. "But she let me sit up front."

"And?"

"And I never get to sit up front. Look, is Mom gonna be okay? Cause if it's only heat delirium, she really should be coming around a little bit. You know?"

The captain glanced over at the bald guy. "Doctor?"

"Well, considering that she's a species I've never seen before, this would only be an educated guess," he said. "And of course, I can't guarantee that any of my readings are necessarily…"

"Doctor!"

He flipped his scanner closed. "She's already IS coming around. Vitals are stable, temperature is holding steady. Superficial wounds have all been taken care of. But like I said, I have never seen her species before. She's very nearly human, but there are some significant differences. I can't know what's normal here."

Finally, he took his first good look at me. "Is there anything you can tell me about what to expect here?"

Oh frell, this was so bad. Mom hates the heat delirium. I had only seen it once, well, seen it bad, anyway, and Mom wouldn't even talk about it. Dad told me once that it's the one thing in the whole wide verse that stone-cold scares her, and here it was…

"D'Argo?" the captain said again.

"Right. Um, shakes for awhile. Probably some wicked head pain. And she'll feel hot for a day or so. Dad said that last time, it took that long for her body to be able to regulate its temperature again. He was wicked freaked about it, too, but Pilot has been around tons of Sebaceans and says that's normal, that it takes a little longer to come out of it every time, and that the shakes and stuff are a sign you're gonna be okay."

He picked up the scanner thingy again and aimed it at me. "And you are unafflicted?"

"Like I said, I'm only half. So, can I talk to my mom now? And you were gonna get me on the transport pod so we can send my dad a message to…"

"One thing at a time, D'Argo," interrupted the captain. "Doctor, your patient?"

"Unconscious, but as best as I can guess, from mere exhaustion. She'll wake up on her own when she's ready."

"Keep an eye on her and report to me as soon as she's awake. B'Elanna, take the boy to his ship and see what can be done to salvage their supplies and get things going again. But remember that a ship that small won't have a comm range like Voyager does. He might have better luck contacting his family through our equipment."

"Yes, Captain."

"I'll send someone by in about an hour to collect him."

B'Elanna nodded. "If I might make a suggestion?"

"Oh?"

"Ensign Wildman."

There was that smile again. I didn't get it, until I met Samantha Wildman later, that she was the mom of the only kid on the ship---and her kid, like me, was a half.


	3. Chapter 3

The transport pod was frelled. I saw it, the insides leaking out all over the place, lots of it all burned and sticky, and I felt sick. I couldn't fix this, no frelling way. I didn't think even Mom could fix it. She was good with her prowler, and with stuff on Moya and Z, but she was no PK tech. Lucky for me, B'Elanna seemed to be.

"This is all very do-able," she said, nodding confidently she poked at the console. "Communications, navigation…I take it this is some sort of shuttlecraft?"

"It's a transport pod. So, you can fix it?"

"Oh yeah. The mechanical stuff, no problem, but we might need help with the sensor logs. Our universal translator still isn't picking up this language, and…"

"Sensor logs? Who cares about that? We have to get the comms running again and call my dad."

"Well, yeah. But unless you want him flying into the same problem you had, we better figure out what disabled your ship before we send him out to come and get you, hadn't we?"

I hadn't thought about it. Good thing I was only still the co-pilot and not the main one, I could have made things worse than I already had…

"And the captain is right, D'Argo, you may have better luck getting him on our comm anyway. Better range, and technologically, a more refined system."

"Yeah. Dad'll get here, somehow. He always does, you know."

"Sure he does."

"He always finds us, that's his thing. There's no place we could go where he wouldn't find us."

"D'Argo…"

"When Z was little---Z, that's Zaahn, Jothee's ship, she's Moya's baby---she used to love to play Hide with us. Some of us would go on Z and she would starburst away, and Dad and Moya, they'd come after us and they would find us. Then THEY would starburst away and WE would find them, and we would see who got found quicker. Dad and Moya? They won. Always."

She patted my shoulder. "We'll take care of this, D'Argo. Now, I am guessing this datachip here is the one with the sensor data?"

I was sorting bulba fruit into piles for refrig and piles for disposal when I heard some more people in the cargo bay. I remembered the captain person had said she was sending someone to get me, and sure enough B'Elanna put down her tool and stood up, motioning to me to come with her.

"This is Ensign Wildman," she told me, introducing to the woman poking her head into the doorway. "She's going to…"

"I'm going to feed him lunch," the woman said with a smile. Then, to me, she said "And you can call me Samantha. What's your name?"

"I'm D'Argo. And shouldn't you be taking me to your comms? I have been saying this whole time, we have to call my dad to come save us, and…"

"Lunch first, D'Argo. Engineering tells me they are still running the data on your sensor logs. We won't be ready to call your dad until we know what to tell him, will we?"

"Yeah, I guess. Have you seen my mom? Is she okay?"

"The doctor tells me she's still sleeping. But he'll call me as soon she she's awake."

"But she wasn't awake before so she doesn't know we've been rescued. When she wakes up, she won't know where we are."

"The doctor will tell her. D'Argo, I know this must be very scary for you, but I promise you, you're safe here on Voyager, and your mother is safe too. We're going to help you get home. AFTER lunch."

Well, it didn't look like there would be negotiating. I followed Samantha and went to go have lunch.

"This is the mess hall," she said, leading me into a large, bright room. "Our cook is Neelix. He's a species called Talaxian. Neelix?"

An orange-coloured man popped up from behind the counter. "Greetings, Ensign. And hello to our young visitor. Welcome to Voyager."

I said hello.

"And THIS is Naomi," she said, pointing to a small, aproned shadow stirring away at a pot of something. "She's been helping Neelix out with lunch."

Then the shadow turned around, and I saw that it was a kid! She was about my size, with long hair and small bumps on her forehead. She gave a big smile when she saw us.

"Mom!" she said.

Samantha smiled and reached over to squeeze the kid's hand. "You have a good morning with Neelix?"

"Yes! We made stew for lunch. It's better than last time. I added some gergan tubers, and they made it a little sweeter."

"Well, I have a customer for you, Naomi. This is D'Argo. He's had a bit of a rough morning and he's about ready for some lunch."

Naomi said hi, then carefully spooned out three bowlfuls of stew and helped her mother carry them to a table. Then she sat down with us.

"So, what happened to you?" she said.

"Our shuttle got frelled, and then we came here so we could fix up my mom and call my dad to come get us. So, what happened to YOU? How'd you get those bumps on your head?"

"They are NOT bumps," she said with a little pout. "They are Ktarian bone ridges. My dad's Ktarian. I've never met him, though. Voyager got stranded before he knew I'd be born."

"How'd you get stranded?"

"We were flying around and then there was a wormhole. Mom could tell you."

I slurped some stew. I didn't want to talk about wormholes right now.

"So you're half too?" That part interested me. I mean, yeah, she was a girl and all, but she was also a half, and I had never met another one except Jothee. I'd never met another who was a kid, anyway, and certainly not one who was human…

She gave me that pouty little frown again. "Half what?"

"Human. Like, how if your mom was Sebacean but your dad was human, you'd be half. Or if your mom was human, but your dad was…what'd you call it?"

"Ktarian."

"Right. I've never met anyone else who was a half like that."

"Really? I've met some. There's me, and there's Lieutenant Torres…"

"I met her! She's fixing our ship. Mom'd freak to have someone else touching the ship like that, but Mom's still out, and I am co-pilot so I have to make decisions like that."

"Uh huh. Well, she's half-Klingon. And everyone knows what THAT means!"

"What does it mean?"

"Well, Klingons, they're like warriors, you know? They have this whole warrior code and everything, and…"

"Oh! Like PK's!"

"Like who?"

"Well, there's Sebaceans, right? And they live on planets and they farm and stuff. We run transpo for some of the colonies. But then, in space? In space, there are only PK's."

Naomi frowned. "That doesn't sound anything like Klingons."

I spooned up another mouthful of stew. "Well, you'll see. Once Mom is better and Dad comes here with Moya to save us, we'll have you over and you can check out Mom's training gym. I'm only allowed to spar a little, and I'm not allowed to use a pulse rifle without a training sight, but I can already pass a Level Two training sim."

"I play Kadis-Kot," Naomi said. "I won a trophy."

I didn't know what Kadis-Kot was. But then Samantha's comm went off again. I had forgotten about that.

"Sickbay to Ensign Wildman," the doctor said. "Can you bring our young visitor at once, please? His mother is asking for him."

Mom was awake! This should be good. I leapt to my feet, Naomi and Samantha both following after me.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 4

Mom was sitting up when we got there, which was a good thing. But her knees were drawn up and her hands were locked in tight little fists pressed into her thigh. She was trying to hide the shakes, but I knew what to look for. When she saw me, she tried smiling. She didn't quite pull it off.

"D'Argo. You're all right?"

"Yes ma'am."

"The ship? The cargo?"

"Frelled."

"But salvageable?"

"Think so. I'm glad you're okay, Mom."

"And I'm glad you are here," she said. "Perhaps you can explain to this charming diagnosan…"

"Doctor," the bald man corrected.

"Very well. Perhaps you can explain to this charming DOCTOR that there is no need to keep me here any longer, because I am perfectly fine."

Oh boy, had I heard this one before. Even the diagnosan---doctor, I mean---could see that she was feeling like dren, and he didn't even know her the way I did. She looked, as Dad would say, a little peaked, and she is not nearly as good at hiding it as she thinks she is. Still, I knew my job here.

"Does she really need to stay?" I asked the doctor.

"As I have already explained to her, it's just for observation," the doctor said. "I've never treated her species before, and I want to monitor her recovery until I'm sure she's out of danger."

"But I can't stay here," Mom complained. "I have to get our comm system fixed, or we'll never…"

"But that lady who saved us is already working on it," I said.

"You let a STRANGER work on our ship? D'Argo!"

"What? You were sick, and I was the co-pilot, and I wasn't sure how long you'd be, so I had to do something, didn't I?"

Her fist was twitching a little. "Yes," she said after a moment. "I suppose you did. But I'm fine now, D." She straightened some, trying not to look nauseous. "I'm perfectly fine. Completely fine. I don't need to stay here."

"Oh, for heaven's sake," the doctor snapped. "It's for your protection!"

"Protection? PROTECTION? I am Aeryn Sun! I don't need ANYONE to protect me!"

It was clear I would have to step in here. "Well," I said. "You don't need to worry anyway, Mom. I have a plan!"

"You have a plan? YOU have a PLAN? What sort of plan could you possibly have?"

"We stay here, they try and fix our comms, then we wait for Dad to come save us."

"So we just…we just sit here, that's your plan? We sit here, and…wait?"

"Well, I'm good and all, but I've only passed sims at level two, and I know how women are with heat delirium, so…"

"Women? WOMEN? D'Argo Sun-Crichton, you know perfectly well that Sebacean heat delirium has NOTHING to do with that!"

I shrugged. "I don't know that many Sebacean women."

She considered this for a moment, the flush creeping back into her cheeks and her fists tightening a little. She looked like she was about to collapse again.

"Well, fine," she said with a defiant pout. "I'll sit here and let you do your little plan, D'Argo, and do you know why? Because NOTHING excites your father more than getting to play the big hero. And there is nothing like a post-rescue FRELL for making LITTLE SISTERS!"

With that, she slumped back down onto the bed, face red and breath struggling. "I'm fine," she managed as the doctor picked up his scanner again. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine…"

Naomi looked at me. "Dude. Your mom…"

I sighed. "Yeah. I get that a lot."

It took nearly half an arn to get Mom settled again. Naomi's mom had to go back to work, so Naomi decided to hang with us in the sickbay place.

"I'll be the doctor's assistant for today," she said. "We don't have a school on Voyager 'cause I'm the only kid, so I get to do projects and go be people's assistant."

"We don't have a school on Moya either," I said. "But I get lessons. And every summer we go on holiday and I go to camp. Dad thinks it's important for me to be around other kids, even if they are just Sebaceans."

"But what's wrong with Sebaceans?" Naomi asked. "Isn't that what you are?"

"Well, I'm half. But Mom isn't just Sebacean, she's PK…well, she was…and that's different. I remember they had a huge fight about it, when they first had the idea for me to have camp, cause Dad has a thing about PK's, and Mom told him it isn't that simple and for better or worse it's part of her, and she wants me to know my stuff."

"Was she right?"

"Well, it's a funny thing, cause there aren't many PK halfs, and people didn't like that about me. But they were all like 'oh, he's Aeryn's son, and she's hard-core' and everyone left me alone cause of that, and then I did stuff and they knew my thing and then they were all like 'oh, he's D'Argo, he's cool' and they left me alone cause of that."

From the bed, Mom made a small noise. I touched her cheek and found it cool again.

"One sec, I'd better get her something," I told Naomi. My water bottle was still on the table where I'd left it. I opened it and helped Mom drink.

"Feeling better?"

"Sweet boy."

"Honestly. Are you?"

"Not much better," she admitted. "It'll be a few arns yet. D'Argo, it's…it's hard for me, letting you see me this way. I…I don't do this well."

I knew it. Dad had explained it to me, the first time I'd seen this kind of thing, how Mom had come a long way and all that, but when she felt vulnerable, her first instinct would be to fight, and her second would be to hide and tough it out alone. He said you had to be real careful with her when it got to the point and make sure she was okay.

"Do you want to sleep for awhile?" I asked her.

"Can't. Too hot. Frelling head."

"D'you want a blocker? Can we…"

"Had two. Didn't help."

"What can we do?"

"Distract me," she said. "Anything."

I looked at Naomi. "Ideas?"

Naomi gave Mom a cheerful wave. "Hi. I'm Naomi."

"Hello."

"I'm sorry that you aren't feeling well."

"I'm perfectly fine."

"Uh huh. Well, sometimes, when I'm…like that…Neelix tells me a story. Do you want to hear a story?"

"Yes," I said.

We looked at Mom. She slowly nodded.

"Great! Okay, true story or made up one?"

"True," Mom said.

"Do you know any stories about Earth?" I asked her. "I've never met anyone besides Dad who knows about that."

"Earth. Um, okay…well, this is the story of first contact, I've been doing it for a project. So, you know about the space program, right?"

"What, like IASA?"

"No, that was ages ago, and that didn't work. They only managed short-range flights, and of course there was the famous Farscape disaster…"

Mom looked sick again. "The…what?"

"Farscape Disaster. An experimental ship got launched and accidentally made a wormhole. They lost the ship, and…"

"It came back," Mom said. "The…the pilot, he brought it back, didn't he?"

"Well, yeah, one time. But then he told them he had been stranded and tortured and experimented on and stuff. Nobody liked that that. So they shut down the program and folded IASA into SETI, which was this thing they were doing to try and find life on other planets. And the Vulcans, they heard the transmissions from SETI and started watching Earth."

"Why didn't they just come over?" I asked.

"The Prime Directive. You aren't supposed to interfere with the development of less advanced cultures. Until we achieved warp-speed spaceflight, they wouldn't consider us advanced enough."

"And I am guessing you did eventually achieve it?" Mom said.

"There was a man called Zefrem Cochrane. He was working on an experimental engine called the warp drive. Nobody believed in him. But he did it anyway. He built a warp drive and he launched it and it flew. And then the Vulcans came and made first contact with Earth, and that led to the founding of the United Federation of Planets, and that led to Voyager being here, like this."

Mom wasn't flush anymore, but she was pale, too pale, and her breathing was very careful. She was working much too hard at keeping herself together here.

"Did you like the story?" Naomi asked.

"Hmmm."

"Should we have the doctor check on you?" I asked.

"Hmmm. Hate doctors. Hate diagnosans. Hate needing them."

"I know."

"Hate frelling Scarrans. Wish your father was here."

"I'll get the doctor," Naomi said. She reached for her comm, but the doctor was already on his way over.

"Doctor!" Naomi said. "I was just coming to…"

"I set up an alert on her bioscan," he explained as he picked up his scanner thing. "I don't understand. Her thermal readings should be going down, not up."

"She should sleep," I said.

"I agree. I'll give her something that might help her." He picked up a probe thing and jammed it into her neck. She struggled for a second, then was out.

Naomi turned to me. "What's a Scarran?"

"It's a lizard alien thing that shoots heat rays out of its hands. They took Mom once and did stuff, bad stuff. Things like this, they make her remember, I guess."

The doctor adjusted his monitors. "She'll be out for awhile," he told us. "You can go if you want to."

"Go where?" I asked.

Naomi broke into a huge grin. "You ever see a holodeck before?"


	5. Chapter 5

Part 5

The holodeck was this special room where you could do simulations.

"Like a battle sim?" I asked Naomi.

"Wow, you sure like weird stuff. Well, you could do battles in it if you want to, but there's other stuff too. Like…you want to see Earth?"

Did I! How cool was this?

"Computer," said Naomi. "Earth. San Francisco. Starfleet Academy. Garden Cafe"

A garden sprung up around us. I could see large buildings in the distance, and a small wooden deck just ahead of us. There were tables on it, and people eating.

"This is where my parents met," said Naomi. "Mom was a cadet, and Dad was working in this restaurant. It's called the Garden Café, and cadets weren't normally allowed to come here. They had to be invited by a faculty."

"So how'd your mom get in?"

"She did some kind of big project and won a prize. All the winners got to come here to a brunch, and my dad was working here. The holodeck, it could actually put them in if I wanted it too. Mom did that once, showed me the whole thing, programmed in the day to happen just like it really had. She wanted me to see what my dad was like."

I thought about that for a second. "Was it weird?"

"Maybe a little. But it was really neat too. The holodeck database has all sorts of historical events programmed into it. You can call them up and see them happen, or you can even join in and be a part of it."

"What kind of historical events? Like, space ones? Like the ones you told us about before?"

"What, you mean first contact? Oh, sure, that one would definitely be in there. And…"

"And Farscape?"

She gave a short nod, then looked upward again. "Computer. Is there a simulation in your database for the Farscape disaster?"

"Affirmative."

"Run scenario." She turned back to me. "Do you just want to watch, or do you want to join in?"

"Join in," I said. I wasn't really sure what that meant, but it could be cool to see my dad again…

She gave a few more instructions to the computer, then the café vanished and in its place was a large, white room full of machines. And…there was dad! He walked straight up to us and said "Morning, kids. You guys ready for the big launch?"

"Yes," said Naomi. She was looking at his flight suit, bouncing on her toes. "Do we get a uniform too?"

"Of course you do, little lady. We're making history today. We want to look sharp. Don't we?"

Dad gave both of us a little wink. It was sort of creepy.

"Well, suit up," he said. "Then take your seats…"

The pod looked bigger than I remembered. "Is it supposed to be this big?" I asked Naomi.

"They computer tweaked it so we could ride along," she whispered back. She was already wriggling into a flight suit. "Now get in, or you'll miss the launch."

We took our seats in the pod. Dad hopped into the pilot's seat. Then the pod was sealed, and we were launching.

"Canaveral, this is Farscape 1," Dad said. "I am free and flying. Are you with me there, Momma Bear?"

"Oh yeah Farscape," said the man from Canaveral. "I'm reading you loud and clear. You are go for insertion procedure…"

Naomi grabbed my hand, scrunching shut her eyes as the pod accelerated. This was getting way creepy. Any second now, we would jump…

"Approaching maximum velocity in 21 seconds," Dad said. "18 seconds... Nearing critical altitude phase…"

There was a burst of static. "Farscape 1," said Canaveral. "Hold a moment…"

Here it was, the wormhole, the one that started it all. We were gonna get lost, just like now, just like Dad and Moya and Mom and me and Voyager, lost by a wormhole. It had happened already, and this Dad that was here with me in the pod had no idea what was going to happen, but I did, and I found myself scrunching my eyes shut too, like Naomi was, because I couldn't watch…"

"Hold?" Dad said. "Canaveral…what?"

"Meteorology reports some kind of electromagnetic wave. Repeat, some kind of wave. John, do you read me?"

"Yeah, I read you…"

"John…" We could barely make out the voice. "Abort! Abort! Abort!"

Holy frell, it was on us, the wormhole, the whoosh, and I knew exactly what was on the other side, there was the uncharted territories and Moya and D'Argo, the first D'Argo, and he hadn't found Jothee yet. And there was Zaahn, the one I had never met, the one they named Baby Z for, only she wasn't there yet, Z, and I wasn't either. And Mom, Mom would be there, scary soldier PK Mom, and I didn't want to see it, I didn't want to see…I found myself shouting along with the man from Canaveral, abort, abort, abort…

Then we were sitting on the empty floor of the bare holodeck and Naomi was looking at me. "What'd you do that for? I was having fun!"

And her comm beeped. "Naomi?" It was the doctor. "Can you bring D'Argo back please?"

She gave me a dirty looked, then started walking. I followed her.

Mom was awake again, sitting up, but not even trying to hide the shakes anymore. Her cheeks were red, but she was shivering, and the captain was back, and so was Naomi's mom Samantha. They were looking at some readings on the doctor's screen.

I reached out for Mom's hand, and she took it without even noticing, giving the captain a stare of death. "I don't see why D'Argo needs to be here for this. He's been through enough."

"For what?" I asked. "What's happening."

"He should know," Samantha said.

"Isn't that my decision?" Mom said.

"He's worried about you," Samantha said. "If you don't tell him what's wrong, he'll only worry more."

"What's going on?" I asked. "Mom?"

"Yes, what IS going on?" the captain asked. "Doctor, you've found something?"

"I have. It was Ensign Wildman who brought it to my attention, actually. She was helping Lieutenant Torres with the shuttle pod…"

"That's an engineering job," the captain said.

"She was called in on the salvage side. They had been on a supply run, you'll recall, and had collected some unusual plants and foodstuff."

"Okay…"

"And she noticed that one of the plants…this one," he said, tapping at a picture on the monitor. "Was emitting some unusual spores."

"Spores? As in, contagions? Doctor, do we have a quarantine situation on our hands here?"

"Ensign Wildman tells me they have isolated the offending material. I checked Lieutenant Torres and Ensign Wildman, and they are clear of any signs of infection."

"But our visitors are not?"

"The spores seem to be heat-activated. The explosions on the shuttle just have triggered them. Now, I have here a scan of Aeryn, and one of D'Argo. If you look…here…" He pointed to a spot on one of the scans. "That is the gland which regulates extreme thermal increases. Sebeceans appear to lack this gland. But if you look at the scan of D'Argo, who, as you will recall, is only HALF Sebacean, you will see that he possesses it."

The captain squinted at the two pictures. "Yes, I see. But Doctor…"

"This same gland," the doctor continued. "Seems to be responsible for filtering out the infection. I believe D'Argo was exposed too, but his body was able to deal with the virus on its own. Aeryn lacks the biochemistry to do that."

I tried to follow the conversation. "So Mom is gonna stay sick?" I asked.

"Not necessarily. D'Argo, I said that your mother lacks the gland. But…the baby has it."

Now, we all looked shocked. "The baby?" I sputtered. "What baby?"

"I almost didn't catch it. It's at a very early stage and seems to be in some kind of…hibernation…"

"Stasis," said Mom, looking more unhappy than I would have expected at this news. "Stasis pregnancy. It hasn't been activated yet."

"Well, if we activate it, that should clear up the infection and cure the heat delirium. The baby, like D'Argo, appears to have inherited the gland from its human father. When we activate the pregnancy and expose it to the infection, it will clear the problem up for the both of you."

"Good job, Doctor," the captain said. "How soon can you…"

"We're not activating it," Mom said.

"What?" said the doctor. "Why not?"

"It's too soon. John will never get here in time. A typical Sebacean pregnancy is eight monens long, but I was a Peacekeeper, carrier-bred. With the geometric modifications…"

"I'm sorry, the what?"

"Geometric modifications. Peacekeepers are bred to handle certain processes more efficiently than regular Sebeceans. If you activate the pregnancy, I will be having this child within the solar week!"

"I'm still not seeing the problem," the captain said. "Activating the pregnancy will cure the virus?"

"Yes," said the doctor.

"And if you let her go on like this?"

"She'll continue to suffer in this condition. It's fairly low-grade---she tells me it's not a strong enough state of heat delirium to cause any sort of permanent damage---but it will be quite uncomfortable, and I will have to monitor her carefully to ensure that the wear and tear on her body doesn't reach critical levels. If it does…"

"I cannot make a decision of this magnitude without my husband," Mom said. "He doesn't even know this child exists! I'll wait, thank you."

"Aeryn…" The captain pulled up a stool and pushed closer to Mom. "Aeryn, we might not find him. I'm sorry to tell you this. But you have to be prepared for the possibility that we might not find him."

"HE will find US!"

"I hope he does. And anything we can do to show him the way, we'll do. We have a fully equipped astrometrics lab, and we were hoping to get your boy in there for a go with our equipment. We will do everything we can to help you. But…"

"But nothing. Crichton WILL find us! And when he does, you can activate the stasis pregnancy and we will have this child together."

"And in the meantime?"

"In the meantime…I will endure."

That ended that. She would not talk about it anymore, not even to me. When I left with Naomi and Samantha, she was pretending to sleep, but I knew what was really going on. She was stalling until I was out of the way, so she could pretend, while she was suffering, that I wasn't seeing it and didn't know what was really going on.


	6. Chapter 6

Part 6

I spent the night bunking with Naomi and Samantha. Mom was still sleeping when we got up, so I had breakfast with Naomi and them went with her and her mom to astrometrics to see about calling Dad. Astrometrics was huge. There were control panels everywhere, and a massive screen that was as high as the room. The central console was manned by a pale woman in a grey suit, who had bits of metal on her.

"That's Seven," Naomi said. "She's my friend!"

Seven didn't look very friendly to me, but she did crack a small smile when Naomi rushed her and trapped her in a hug. She looked over Naomi's shoulder at me, then at Samantha.

"This is D'Argo," Samantha explained.

"Yes," Seven said. "I have been briefed."

"We have to call my dad," I said. "Then he can come get us. I…"

"You sense wormholes?" Seven interrupted.

"What? Yeah. How did you…"

"I said I have been briefed." She punched a few buttons on her console, and a map of the stars came up on the giant screen. "Show me where the wormholes will be."

I frowned. "It isn't quite that simple."

"But there are wormholes out there."

"Nearly always. Most of 'em don't last long enough to even open, really. Unless you know exactly where you're going, you'd miss 'em."

"But not you."

"Dad had a thing. I kinda inherited it, a little. Plus, I'm part Pilot, so…"

"Pilot?"

"Pilot is part of our ship. He and I are buds. Anyway, he was in this sort of an accident with Mom, and some of his DNA got mixed. This was before I came along."

"You are three species?"

"No! I'm just Human/Sebacean. But I have a little bit of Pilot too, and he's real good at sensing things. I have it a bit better than Mom does 'cause she only got it later and I was born that way. It's like…sometimes I hear noises and stuff that are too quiet for others to hear. And I feel things about stuff. Dad thinks it's why I never lost the wormhole sense even after he did, 'cause my Spidey Sense picks up on it too."

"Spidey Sense?"

"Dad says."

"Ah. So how does it work, exactly?"

"What?"

"The wormholes. Can you tell us where they are going to be?"

"Well, yeah, here. But I can't tell where they're going to be on the other end. Even if we got a message through to Dad, I'd only be able to tell him we're here. I couldn't say how he would get himself to THIS side!"

Seven thought about this for a second. "If we were on the same 'side' as he was…"

"Well, that would be easy. We could just send out a beacon and he could come pick us up. But our transport pod is frelled. We couldn't get it through a wormhole again."

"Your transport pod," Seven said. "Did not have shields. Voyager does."

"So you think we can take Voyager through to Dad?"

"If you can restore us to our space subsequently, yes. We could take Voyager through."

Oh wow. This was way cool stuff. "How soon?"

"Find me a wormhole. I'll contact the captain and make the other necessary arrangements."

By the time I was done in astrometrics, Samantha had already left to go to work and Naomi had wandered off to go help somewhere. I found myself alone on this ship of theirs for the first time.

I stopped outside the door of the astrometrics lab and did like I had seen Naomi do. I walked up to the nearest wall panel and just started talking. "Computer," I said. "Where is the holodeck?"

The panel lit up with a large lighted arrow. I followed it and soon, I was at the holodeck. I went inside.

There was that Garden Café place again. And Captain Janeway was sitting at one of the tables, waiting for me.

"D'Argo. Will you join me?"

Well, this was suspicious. "Okay…"

"I have a little treat for you," she said. "Have you ever had ice cream?"

"What's that?"

"It's a food humans enjoy. It's cold and sweet and delicious. And I just used up 3 credits of my own replicator rations for it, so I hope you like it. Eat it fast. It melts quickly."

She pushed a bowl and a spoon toward me, and I poked the spoon into the brown, smooth mass. I nibbled delicately. It was cold, like she said, and it ran down my throat real smooth.

"Yummy," I said.

She smiled again. "I was hoping we could talk for a few minutes, D'Argo."

"Okay."

"I wanted to ask you some questions about your father."

I didn't feel right about this. "What kind of questions?"

"Naomi told me what happened in the holodeck," she said. "With the Farscape simulation?"

"Okay…"

"And then there were some remarks your mother made. D'Argo, the Farscape Disaster…was your father the pilot? Is that who he is?"

She pushed one of her portable panel thingies toward me and I saw that it had a picture of Dad on it.

"That's your father?" she asked me.

I was feeling suddenly defensive. "Why do you care?"

"I care because I'm trying to help you find your way home. And I think you might be farther away than you think. D'Argo, the Farscape launch, that was four hundred years ago!"

I suddenly lost interest in the ice cream. "I don't believe you."

"If you are as familiar with wormholes as you say you are," she said gently. "You must know that there is often time dilation when you travel through…"

"Dad's gonna find us," I said. For the first time since this whole mess started, I felt like I might cry. I was very far away from home, and I was just a kid, and Mom was sick, and being very stubborn about it too, and she was hiding just like Dad said she would, and I was going to have to solve this whole thing myself, wasn't I?

"I hope he will. I would very much like to meet him, D'Argo. He sounds like an extraordinary person."

"He is."

"I've always been fascinated by the early stories of first contact. But people sometimes forget that Zefrem Cochrane wasn't the first. Did you know that your mother saw Earth, D'Argo? That, when your father came back, she was with him?"

"She doesn't talk about that much. She doesn't talk a lot about stuff that happened before I was born."

"Would you like to know what happened?"

"What, like on the holodeck?"

"If you like. There are written accounts, too." She pushed her little screen thingie closer. "This is the entry about him that's in the textbook they use on ship-board schools aboard Starfleet vessels."

I skimmed the text. "But it's so short!"

"The encounter itself was short, and traumatic. Earth wasn't ready for it. And when it went badly---somebody died---they covered it up and tried to pretend it didn't happen. They shut down the space program, D'Argo. If it hadn't been for Zefrem Cochrane, first contact might never have happened."

"But that's not fair! This is all…it's wrong, you know. Okay, there was bad stuff. There was a lot of bad stuff, and Mom doesn't like to talk about it, and sometimes she says he ruined her life, and I don't think she's always just joking. But there was also some really great stuff, you know? The times he went through stuff to save her. The times she did things she never had done before, for him. Loving. Having babies. She never would have done that without him, and he…he's had adventures no human being has ever had. He's done small stuff, and he's done big stuff, and he found Mom and had me, and all of that is important, and it's all…it's all missing! They're talking about the Farscape Project like it's this great tragedy and everything, and it's totally not!"

"I know," she said.

"We gotta find Dad again," I said. "Mom and I, we shouldn't be here. We need to be with Dad."

"I know," she said again. "We'll get you there. I spoke with Seven, D'Argo. We'll need a day or so to get our shields reconfigured to deflect the gravitational stresses the wormhole. But if you find us one, and it's stable, we should be able to take you over, to find your dad and get you home."

"You'd do that for us? Take your ship through like that?"

"Well, this is all supposing you can send us back when we're done."

I nodded.

"Go be with your mother, D'Argo. Let us work on this. I'll keep you posted, all right?"

"Captain Janeway?"

"Yes?"

"Can I have some more ice cream, for Mom?"

She smiled and rose from the table. "I'll arrange it. You'll…you'll be alright? I'll send Ensign Wildman to…"

"I'll be alright. Dad, he's found us before, you know. He finds us a lot."

"I see that now. Shall I walk you back?"

I let her take my hand.


	7. Chapter 7

Part 7

Mom was sleeping when I got back to sickbay, so I went into the doctor's little office to see if he was there and could tell me how things were. I found Naomi, playing some kind of game on his computer.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey."

"So, Mom, she's…"

"Sleeping. Mom said…my mom said that you guys are…"

"Yeah."

"So it's true?"

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Uh huh. So, where did your mom go?"

"She had some work to do. Then she's gonna come back and feed us lunch. I think you're staying with us for now. Unless you want to stay in here?"

"Mom wouldn't like that. She doesn't like to be around people when she feels this way. I've seen it before."

"Was it…was it real scary?"

"Yeah. We were trapped for three arns in a maintenance duct during a lockdown on a space station that had one of those thermal security systems. You ever see one of those?"

"No."

"Anti-insurgency thing, let's 'em control the PK's. They keep the station just hot enough to slow down a Sebacean, then issue 'em cooling suits as soon as they dock. During a lockdown, they cut off the power to the cooling suits. We had to wait for a security agent to find us, determine Mom was not the bad guy, and turn her suit back on. She got…bad, in the meanwhile. The heat frelled with her head, and she started seeing stuff that wasn't there. It was rough. She wouldn't let us near her for almost a solar day, after that. Dad had to send in some drd's to spy on her and make sure she was okay."

"That sounds awful."

"Yeah. Well, PK's, they aren't afraid of anything, except the Living Death. That's what happens when heat delirium gets too far. Mom, she's had one or two close calls, I think every PK has. Freaks her out. She's probably…right now…"

I peeked out the window to check on her, and saw that Naomi's mom Samantha had come back to sickbay. Mom was awake again, and they were talking, and I don't think they knew that Naomi and I were here.

"I do understand, you know," Samantha was saying.

"Do you? How can you?"

"We're more alike than you might think. I'm a scientist, like your husband is. And I had a plan for how my life was going to go. It didn't go that way."

"That happens to a lot of people."

"Voyager was my dream assignment. My husband was going to join us, once we had her up and running. We were just supposed to take her for a little shakedown first…"

The flush was back in her cheeks. I saw Mom bat a hand up to her eyes, pressing her fist into her forehead, massaging away a streak of unhealthy red. Two solar days of heat delirium…

"Uh huh," Mom said.

"It was a wormhole that did us in too, you know. Next thing we knew, we were stranded at the other end of the galaxy, cut off from Starfleet, stuck on this ship…I didn't find out I was pregnant until some time later. My husband doesn't know I'm still alive. He doesn't know that Naomi has ever BEEN alive."

"Hmmmm."

"And it would be so easy to lie to her sometimes, to promise her that Starfleet is never going to give up looking, that Captain Janeway will find us a way home…"

"That might still happen," Mom said. "All of that might happen."

"But it might not. And I don't do her any favours by hiding that from her. She has to know that whatever happens, I'm here with her now, making a life with her. And when she does have a bad day, she needs to know that it's okay, that it's normal, that I have them too."

"D'Argo never needs to know that about me."

"Doesn't he?"

"How will that help him, to know that I am frightened too? It will only add to his burden."

"Oh, Aeryn, it won't…it will bring you so much closer together! He is your son. He needs to be there for you. He WANTS to be there for you."

"He shouldn't have to be. He is a child, Samantha."

"He is a child now, yes. But one day he will be a man. And he will never learn how to be brave unless he has someone who needs him."

I could hear Mom's breathing. It sounded real loud to me. Then, she said "Find him. Now. Before I lose my nerve."

Naomi gave me a push, and I scuttled out there. Samantha looked surprised, but Mom didn't even notice that.

"D."

"Mom."

"D. It hurts so much…"

I brushed away a tear, on each of us. "I know it does."

"And I'm thinking about all the times he's ever left me, and all the times he's ever found me, and I think he might find me again. But D, I'm so hot, and my throat hurts, and my head hurts, and I…I don't think I can wait for him…"

"Mom, don't cry, it's okay, it's okay…"

"I want to tell the doctor to activate the stasis, D. I can't…I can't wait for him…"

"It's okay, Mom, he'll understand, you know he will…"

"And if he doesn't get here in time…D, I don't think I can have this baby alone."

"I'll help you. You won't be alone."

"He'll find us, D."

"Yeah. He's real good at that, Mom. He'll find us."

She wiped away the tears on her own this time. "We'll be all right. We'll be all right."

"Yeah. Naomi, can you find the doctor for us?"

She had already gone to get him. We were going to have a baby. We weren't going to wait anymore.


	8. Chapter 8

Part 8

Five minutes later, it was done. The doctor injected her with something, and she closed her eyes. "I'm so sleepy…"

"Sleep," I said. "You'll feel better when you wake up, and I will bring you some ice cream."

"Ice cream? Where did you hear about that?"

"Captain Janeway."

"Ummm. So tired…"

"I know."

"Sweet boy."

I stayed with her until she was sleeping, then went with Naomi to go help Neelix with lunch. The little orange alien had four pots boiling and bubbling when we got there.

"I'm making Earth foods," he said. "I thought our young visitor might enjoy experiencing the foods of his homeland."

I peered into the pots. "Uh huh. What's that one?"

"Beef stew. Of course, we didn't have any beef, and kauri root is not quite like potato. And the original recipe was very bland so I had to spruce it up a little. But other than that, it's beef stew."

"And that one?"

"Macaroni and cheese. Only without the cheese. And without the macaroni."

"And these?"

"These are a soup made with leola root. Old standbys. Some of the crew don't appreciate my fine culinary experiments."

When we came back from lunch, Mom was just fine. She saw me coming and held up her hand with a huge grin. No shakes. And the redness was gone from her cheeks.

"So you're feeling okay?" I asked her. "Really?"

"Just fine, D'Argo, really."

"And the…the baby? Is it…"

"It's fine too. Growing quickly. I missed this part with you."

The doctor came by with his scanner thing, and Mom winced. "Again?"

"The rate of growth is phenomenal," he said. "I want to take some new readings. Are you having any difficulties? Morning sickness, anything like that?"

"Morning sickness?"

"It is common among human mothers to feel dizzy and nauseous during the first trimester of pregnancy."

"Oh. Well, nothing like that. A bit…unsteady, perhaps. The baby has not yet reached its full gestational mass. It's still…expanding."

There was already a small bump on her stomach, and I noticed that her hand kept rubbing at her back. But she looked okay…

"Right. Well, I can tell you the gender, if you want to know."

Mom squeezed my hand again, and smiled. "Well, D'Argo? Would you like to know?"

"When Dad comes. You'll tell us when Dad comes."

That wiped the smile away, and I felt guilty. "But I've looked at the timeline," I quickly explained. "And if we get through the wormhole within the next two solar days, that'll give Dad plenty of time to find us, before…"

Mom nodded, but didn't say answer back.

The doctor at last cleared Mom to leave the sickbay, and Samantha came to get us for some kind of meeting. Mom tried to be cool, but it was her first time seeing the rest of the ship, and I could tell she was taking it all in. Samantha did her best to make us comfortable.

"It'll be senior officers, and you've already met most of them. Lieutenants Torres and Paris were the ones who rescued you, and you've spoken with the captain, of course…"

She led us into a room with a big table in it and made the rest of the introductions. The dark man with the pointy ears was named Tuvok, and was a species called Vulcan. There was also a human called Harry Kim, and another called Chakotay who had some funny markings on him. And Seven, who I met before. Then the captain came in and started the meeting.

"I wanted to review our progress on the wormhole plan," she said. "Lieutenant Torres and Seven of Nine have been working on the shield modifications. And of course, Ensign Wildman has been assisting with our visitors." She gave Mom and me a big smile. "It's good to see you out and about, Aeryn. I understand congratulations are in order?"

Mom nodded unhappily. The captain took the hint. "All right. Seven?"

"D'Argo has provided us with several possibilities. Engineering is running spatial scans to determine the levels of gravimetric dissonance in each of the potential wormholes."

"The lower the level, the smoother the ride?"

"Precisely. Lieutenant Torres is working on modifications to the shields…"

Mom squirmed a little, pressing a hand to her back. "What sort of timeline would we be looking at for all of this?"

B'Elanna glanced up from her little screen thing. "Timeline? Maybe three days?"

Mom shot me a panicked look. I straightened in my chair, trying to look like a man here.

"That's not good enough," I said.

B'Elanna frowned. "Is that so?"

"Look, I'm not trying to be rude or anything," I said. "Just trying to look out for my mom here, you know? The sooner we get things underway, the better chance we have of finding my dad before the baby comes. Did the doctor explain to you, about that?"

B'Elanna nodded, looking a little less angry. "We're doing our best, D'Argo. But if we want to get through this in one piece…"

"Perhaps I can be of assistance," Mom said. "Help you with your modifications."

"Do you know anything about re-routing shield modulations through a secondary deflector to invert the gravimetric reasonance?"

"No."

"Then stay out of our way, and we'll get you home as soon as we can get you home. Captain, if that's everything?"

"Yes, Lieutenant."

B'Elanna and Seven both left, and the captain gave us a weak smile. "Sorry about that."

But Mom wasn't listening. She was looking at me with such panic, and she said "I am not having this baby alone, D'Argo."

"Yeah, Mom. I know."

She was rubbing her back again. "Captain, if there is anything we really can do to speed this along…"

"I'll tell you, Aeryn. Right away."

Samantha took us back to sickbay so Mom could have another scan. Her back was sore. The baby was growing too fast.

We took Mom to go eat something. She had missed lunch, and was feeling a little shaky.

"It's growing so fast, D'Argo. I didn't think it would be this fast…"

"Was it like this when you were pregnant the first time?" Samantha asked.

"I did not carry D'Argo for the first quadmester. There was an…accident…"

"Sounds like a story."

Mom did the stare of death thing. "I'd rather not, really."

"She'll feel better when she eats something," I told Samantha.

Samantha gave me an encouraging smile, then dropped us with Neelix. He was stirring a large pot of what looked like leftover leola root soup.

"How is it?" I asked him.

"Well, I still think it's a little bland. But there were complaints the last time about the seasonings, so I left it plain. There is a red sauce if you want to stir some life into it…"

I picked up a spoon and sampled the soup. It was bland, all right. It tasted like hot water filled with clumps of soggy, unflavoured food cubes.

"Yucky," I said.

Neelix gave me a wink. "Maybe they won't complain so much next time."

He spooned out a bowl and gave it to Mom. "Here you are. It might not look like much, but it's full of nutrition. Eating for two, I hear."

She took a small spoonful and sipped delicately. Then she spit hard, and nearly dropped her spoon.

"What IS this dren?"

Neelix stirred the pot some more. "What? Too bland?"

"Bland? You call that bland? It's downright overpowering."

She spit again into the bowl, grimacing terribly. "Water. I need water…"

Neelix passed me some water, and I gave it to her. She nearly spit that out too.

"Expectant mothers are often sensitive to tastes and smells," Neelix told me.

"Well, it's frelling annoying," I whispered back. "She has to eat something, doesn't she?"

"I can hear you," Mom called out.

"I just bet you can," said Neelix. "Now, talk to me, my dear. How are you feeling?"

"Rather tired of answering that question, thank you."

He held his smile, even under her glare of death. "Indulge me."

"I could eat," she admitted. "If you had something less…strong…"

"I know just the thing. Been awhile since I've broken out the replicator credits," he said, rubbing his hands together with a grin. "Computer. One large packet of saltine crackers."

The console by his workstation glowed blue, and when the haze cleared, there it was.

"Ensign Wildman ate these when she was expecting," he said, tearing open the package for her. "It's an old Earth remedy. Nibble slowly."

Mom held the cracker between two fingers and took a timid bite. She gagged for a second, but managed to swallow it down.

"This is fine. Thank you."

"So? Have you made any plans yet?"

"What sort of plans?"

"For the birth! You know, where you'll be, how you'll do it, there are so many options…"

"What kinds of options?"

"Oh, let's see, it's been such a long time since I've had to read up on this. Well, there's the home birth, although I suppose that's not an option here. Water birth…"

"D'Argo was born in a fountain. I didn't like that much."

Neelix was making notes on his little computer pad. "Okay, so a no to the water birth…now, have you thought about some sort of pain management plan?"

Mom frowned. "What do you mean, plan?"

"Well, many women take advantage of the available medical interventions, obviously. But quite a lot of them choose to do things that natural way…"

"I still don't understand," Mom said.

"Well, why don't you start by thinking about D'Argo's birth? What worked that time? What made things easier for you to manage?"

"Well, there were significant distractions at the time," Mom reflected. "And that did help take my mind off things. But of course, one can't just order up an armada of heavily armed Scarrans whenever one wants to…"

That was when I had my brilliant idea. "Actually," I interrupted. "We sorta can. You ever see a holodeck?"


	9. Chapter 9

Part 9 

The doctor was a little slow at catching onto the plan here.

"So, you want to simulate a battle on the holodeck?"

"Yes," I said.

"And give birth…on the holodeck…during the…?"

"That's right."

He stared at us blankly.

"Well, giving birth is painful," Mom said. "I need distractions."

"Oh yes, of course, distractions," the doctor said. "Ice chips. Breathing exercises. Perhaps some soft music…"

"And a dozen warships full of marauding Scarrans," Mom said. "Worked wonderfully the last time."

"This is highly irregular."

"Be that as it may."

The doctor sighed. "I'll have to clear it with the captain."

"Of course."

"And I will want to make the necessary modifications to any scenario you choose, to ensure at least a modicum of medical safety…"

"Absolutely."

He sighed again. "I'll clear it with the captain."

--

I was in the cargo bay with Mom tinkering with the transport pod when the captain arrived to chat with us. Mom had already gotten the guidance systems and engine sub-routines on-line again, and we were working on the comms. I was holding a flashlight so that Mom could see, and I nearly hit my head on the console when I heard the knock.

"Captain!" I heard Mom say.

I rubbed my head and dug myself out from underneath the console.

"Well, this is looking a lot better," said the captain with a smile. "Your ship AND your mother, D'Argo."

"Yeah."

She nodded to Mom, who was trying to find a place to stow the welding torch while we chatted. "Should she be doing that?"

"What?" said Mom. "I'm pregnant, not disabled. I'll have you know, I held my own against a battalion of soldiers while D'Argo was actually coming out of me. Mind you, I did need help re-loading the pulse pistol, but that was only because my hands were covered in…"

"Yes," said the captain, holding up a hand. "I got that part, thank you. That's actually what I came to talk to you about, Aeryn. The doctor tells me you were hoping to make some…some arrangements, for the birth."

"Well, it's rather painful, you know. I found that the last time, it made me feel better to have something else to focus on."

"Shooting…makes you feel better?"

"Doesn't it for you?"

The captain laughed. "Point taken. Listen, Aeryn, if you don't mind, I'd like to oversee this little project personally. Most of my engineering crew is working on the wormhole modifications, and I'm not sure I can spare them. And holodeck programming is kind of an interest of mine…"

"Fine," Mom said.

"Now, were you interested in replicating the conditions of D'Argo's birth exactly? Or did you want to…to tweak things?"

For the first time since this whole frelling mess began, I saw Mom's eyes sparkle. "Tweak them? Tweak them how?"

We took a snack break so Mom could stretch after being in the transport pod so long. I could tell that things were moving along real fast with the baby. She was noticeably rounder, even from this morning, and she needed to eat again. The captain joined us in the mess hall for leola loaf sandwiches and saltine crackers.

"We have quite a large database of alien species," the captain was saying. "If you wanted to try something new this time…"

"I'm not sure," Mom said. "I'm not sure how long we have to train me on a new species. And I am assuming I can't bring my pulse rifle?"

"The holodeck can supply you with any weapons you need. But no, you can't bring it anything from outside. Those would actually do damage."

"Then I'd need training on weapons, too."

"Right. But if time is really an issue…well, if you did want these Scarrans in there, I would need at least a couple days to get them programmed into the scenario…"

Mom winced, reaching for a saltine. "No. We don't have that long."

"Why don't you tell me more about D'Argo's birth?" the captain asked. "It 'll give me a starting point, at least. And it might give me some ideas on where to go with this."

"Well, we were on a planet trying to rescue some Eidelons. Her face had taken on an excited sparkle. "We had already taken some ground fire, but we managed to find cover and form a crude barricade. It didn't hold completely. I held the line as long as I could, but John made me put down my weapon when it came time to actually push out the baby. I did get to make grenades, though."

Captain Janeway nodded. "I think I get the idea. Tell me, Aeryn, have you ever heard of something called the Borg?"

"No. What's that?"

"It's a…well, a force, unlike any the Federation has ever seen. They have cybernetic implants that enhance their strength, their senses, their defenses. They are linked together in a hive mind that allows them to share information and adapt their defensive capabilities."

"And you've had…you've had combat with these creatures?"

"Many times. And we worked collaboratively with them on one occasion to defeat an even greater threat. That's how we found Seven of Nine. We rescued her from the Borg collective."

Mom picked up another cracker, nibbled it, then put it down again. "Can I see one?"

Captain Janeway grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."

--

Mom spent the rest of the afternoon with Captain Janeway, learning Borg things. I spent it playing in the mess hall with Naomi.

"So, have you ever seen a Borg?" I asked her. She was trying to teach me how to play Kadis-Kot and I was a slow learner. I was ready for a break.

"Borg? Why are you asking about that?"

"We might be doing a battle sim. You know, for the baby."

She shook her head. "You guys are weird. You should talk to Seven about the Borg. She was one, you know."

"Yeah, the captain said. Is that why she has all that metal stuff on her?"

"Yup. The doctor couldn't get all of them off her. Some of it, she'll have forever even though she isn't a Borg anymore."

"Like me and Pilot?"

"Who?"

"Pilot. One time, this science guy did this experiment on Mom and gave her this Pilot DNA. They couldn't get all of it out afterward. She and Pilot still have a thing."

"Yeah, I guess so. Do you want something to eat? I think there's some leftover kalis fruit back there…"

We had a quiet evening. I didn't see Mom until dinner, and her mind was clearly on the baby plans. She smiled and nodded when I told her about my day, but she didn't tell me anything about hers. When she said her back was sore, Samantha found her a bed and got her settled. She put Naomi and me to bed soon after, and that was that. I didn't sleep well, though. I kept thinking about Mom and the baby and how if we didn't go through a wormhole soon, Dad was gonna miss the whole thing.


	10. Chapter 10

Part 10 

I was up early, and had just finished breakfast with Naomi when Mom called. She had gone to the bridge to check on things with the captain, and she had good news.

"We're ready to jump," she told me. "And that's not the best part, D'Argo. Lieutenant Torres sent a probe through to test her shield modifications, and guess what it picked up?"

"What?"

"Leviathan lifesigns! Well, we think that's what it was. The data was a little scrambled by the interference, but…"

"Yeah. I hope so, Mom."

She had Samantha bring me to the bridge when I was finished breakfast. When we got there, we found that the captain had strapped Mom into the main chair. Some of the crew thought that was really funny, but the captain was dead serious. "Didn't want the pregnant woman going through a wormhole without being secure," she said. "Figured my chair was as good a spot as any."

"Than let D'Argo have it," Mom said.

"I'm okay," I protested. "I can just hang onto something like everyone else."

Mom tried to wiggle out of the harness. "I can as well."

"Mom…"

"Sorry. D'Argo, I'm sorry. I…"

"Yeah, yeah, you're the big tough ex-PK. Look, just wear the harness, will you? If that IS Dad on the other side, I don't want him yelling at me for letting you get bruised."

That was the right button to push, and she kept quiet after that. The captain called down to engineering.

"We ready?"

I could feel the wormhole, prickling around the space between us, too small to catch you unless you knew where to aim. But I knew, and I gripped the handrail with one hand and reached for Mom with my mother hand, and closed my eyes and let things ride. There was a whoosh, and a light, and then we were floating free and quiet again. And we were staring at a viewscreen full of pink-and-purple-streaked Leviathan butt.

"Z!" I said.

The captain smiled. "Someone you know?"

"That's Baby Z and probably Jothee! Comm them, comm them, comm them…"

"Audio only," Paris said. "Go ahead."

"Z? Jothee? Guys, it's me! D!"

I heard Jothee exhale. "Thank Cholak. D, are you guys all right?"

"Yeah, Jothee. Is it just you in there?"

"Fraid so, little man. It's harvest season on Hyneria Prime. You know what that means."

"Chi's on holiday."

"Yes sir. And I was on my way to meet her when we got the call from Moya that you and your mom were missing. Caught your beacon's signal yesterday and I was closer, so I brought Z to meet you. She's very excited, she's never won a game of Hide before."

"How much closer?" Mom interrupted. "How far away is he?"

"Hey Aeryn. Um, let's see, two solar days?"

She cried out, and I moved closer so I could squeeze her hand. Poor Jothee had no idea what was going on.

"Aeryn?" he was shouting into the comm. "Aeryn, what is it? Is everything all right?"

"Can he come over?" I asked the captain.

"Of course."

"You better come over, Jothee," I said into the comm. "We have a thing going on right now. Is Moya in comm range?"

"Maybe not for you, but Z can nearly always reach her mom."

"Tell Z to comm Moya and tell her to kick it, Jothee. Mom needs Dad, like, soon. Tell Moya to kick it hard."

There was a pause. "D, your mom IS all right, isn't she?"

"Oh yeah," I said. "Me and her and the baby are just fine, but we don't want Dad to miss the…"

"Whoa," Jothee interrupted. "The baby? What baby?"

Oops. So much for letting him see for himself.


	11. Chapter 11

Part 11

The captain used her beaming thing to bring Jothee right over, and Z took off a second later, racing for an asteroid cloud.

"She needs exercise," Jothee said. "Doesn't get too many opportunities to run like that when she has crew on her."

"I'm still trying to wrap my head around your ship being sentient and alive," Captain Janeway said.

We had gone back into that conference room place with some of the senior officers, and we were getting Jothee all caught up. He kept looking at Mom and shaking his head.

"How far along, Aeryn?"

"It's been three solar days. Jothee, I…we didn't know, that I was…and then…"

He squinted. "Are you okay? Really? Aer, it's…"

"I'm fine," she said. "Jothee, I…"

"Yeah. You know, he'll just be glad you're okay, that the baby is…"

"I hope that when he gets here, it won't quite BE a baby yet. Jothee, tell me honestly, can he get here in time?"

"Well, I don't have any more experience with this than you do, Aeryn. But…if I saw a scan, I might be able to guess…"

"Sickbay," Mom commanded. "Now."

"I'll come with you," Captain Janeway said. "When we're finished there, I have something you'll want to see."

Jothee stared at the scan for a long time.

"Well?" Mom said.

"It seems quicker than last time, doesn't it? But the baby isn't pure Sebacean, so that might be…"

"How soon, Jothee?"

Jothee turned off the monitor. "Two days. Maybe."

"Maybe?"

"I'd like to promise. But…"

She shook her head. "Maybe. That's all you can tell me? Was Z able to contain her excitement long enough to reach Moya before she took off on her run?"

"Aeryn! You know that Z is completely devoted to me, and to you, and to D and John!"

"Um hmm. Look, Jothee, I've been through hezmana here, and I'm, as you say, 'maybe' two days away from giving birth to a child who until three days ago I didn't even know existed. I've endured a wormhole trip, twice. I've ruined a transport pod, suffered numerous injuries, heat delirium, a virus, hormones….you'll have to forgive me if I seem a tiny bit impatient at the thought that John's arrival rests in the hands of an excitable toddler Leviathan."

Jothee winced. "Okay. Point taken. I'll make sure I comm Z again."

"Right. Now, as to the rest of the preparations?"

"That's my cue," said Captain Janeway. "If you'll follow me? I have something to show you…"

She led Mom and Jothee and me to the holodeck, and when we were inside, she said "Computer. Run program."

We found ourselves on what appeared to be the command deck of a ship that looked sort of like Voyager. It was smaller, a little less sleek and pretty. But it had the same colours, the same lines. It was clearly part of the fleet. And on its viewscreen where half a dozen very large cube-like ships.

"Aeryn, D'Argo, Jothee…welcome to Wolf 359," the captain said.

Jothee frowned. "What's this?"

"Aeryn wanted some distractions, to take her mind off things during the birth," the captain explained.

"And a space battle is how she's gonna…?"

"Not just any space battle," the captain said. "Wolf 359 was one of the bloodiest and most terrifying conflicts the Federation ever engaged in. All the demons of our past---Romulans, Klingons, Cardassians---they were nothing compared to the Borg. Hundreds of ships were lost. Thousands of lives…"

Mom, for the first time, looked nervous. "Were you…were you triumphant in the battle?"

"At great cost. But yes. We were triumphant. Picture it, Aeryn. Your ship has been called by the fleet to join the armada that's been slowly but surely assembling at Wolf 359 over the last few days. You've never seen a Borg before, only heard stories, read reports. You don't quite believe them---reports of whole planets being sucked into giant cube-like ships, of people being turned into monsters covered in metal, their individuality subsumed into the massive Borg collective. You've heard that Captain Picard of the Enterprise was captured and only narrowly escaped death after a heroic rescue by his crew. You've heard that forces on both sides have been gathering to mount a decisive, heroic defense---of Earth. Your ship may be all that stands between these monsters, and everyone you hold dear."

"Wow," Jothee whispered.

"It seems like any other battle at first," the captain continued. "You join up with the fleet, and your crew is ready. They've trained for battle, and they will give their lives to defend Earth. And then….during the night rotation, skeleton crew in charge, you hear sirens. You man your battle stations, trade shots. They take out your forward thrusters, but your shields hold. You get in some hits of your own. But then…"

"Yes?" Mom prompted. "Then?"

"Then…your ship gets boarded, your beautiful ship gets boarded, and pandemonium ensues. You gather as many people as you can and crack open the weapons locker. You're going to get those bastards, Aeryn. You're going to take back your ship."

"Oh yes," said Mom. "I would certainly say so. This will do quite nicely, Captain. Where will we take our stand?

--

Z came back just before dinner, and was in quite an excitable state. She had been fixating about the transporter ever since she started her run. When they had beamed Jothee off, it had tickled in such a pleasing way. She was hoping the strange new ship would tickle her again like that.

Of course, the Voyager people, who had never seen a living ship before, were quite happy to go over and have a look. Z was delighted to have visitors, and I went over with Naomi to help Z get ready.

The lights flickered off, then on again.

"What's that?" Naomi asked. "Is she all right?"

"She's happy to see me, but she's sorry Mom didn't come too. It's okay, Z, Mom's fine. Just that the doctor didn't think she should be transporting and stuff in her condition. But I brought Naomi. You'll like her."

To Naomi, I explained "Z's sort of like us, a mix. The PK's did something to Moya, and she can't have pure Leviathan babies. Z's special. Dad calls her a 'test tube baby.' There was a diagnosan the Eidelons found who helped Moya have her."

Naomi pressed her hand against the hull. "She feels alive, D'Argo. It's like something's moving inside…"

"Something is," I said. "Drd's. They're these little robot things that Z makes to help her run things. No Pilot on Z, though. That's one PK thing we kept. She only needs a captain, and she has Jothee for that."

"So he…he lives on her? In…inside her? Inside a living thing?"

"Well, so do I, you know. But Z doesn't have much of a crew yet. She's too little, she can't always control herself, she starts spinning when she gets too excited. Jothee handles her okay, but so far we've only let Z have cargo."

Naomi touched a finger to the wall again. "Well, I think she's beautiful."

Z put up stars on her viewscreen and flickered them in happy blinks. Like any other little kid, there was nothing she loved more than being told how pretty she was.

When I left Z later, Naomi had been on a ride, the captain had been on a tour, and B'Elanna was still holed up in the command, looking Z over. Z was chirping and blinking her lights, delighted with the attention.

Mom was waiting up for me when I got back to Voyager.

"Well?" she said.

"Well what?"

"WELL, did Z reach Moya? Is your father on the way?"

Oops. I hadn't asked that.

"D'Argo…"

"Dad's coming, Mom. I'm sure he is. Are you…are you feeling all right?"

"Technically, yes. But D, I…I can't…"

She looked so unhappy, I didn't know what to do. She pushed my hand away when I tried getting near.

"I can't sit still, D. I just keep thinking what if he doesn't get here?"

"I'll talk to Z again," I said. "I'll tell her…"

"No…just…frell. I can't sit still."

"Mom…"

She tousled my hair. "Sweet boy. I'm sorry, D. I won't be very good company tonight. Do me a favour?"

"Yes. Anything."

"If Jothee hears any news from Z, tell him I'll be in the holodeck."

"Mom?"

"D?"

"Go easy?"

She told me she would try. I wished I was back on Moya again. At least on Moya, I could have sent a drd to keep an eye on her.

I was shaken awake partway through the sleeping cycle with a frantic whisper from Mom. "D'Argo! D, wake up!"

I rubbed my eyes and tried to look for her in the dark. "Mom? Are you…"

"Baby," she hissed through gritted teeth. "Frell it all…"

I sat straight up. "Will it wait?"

She bit back a shriek and gripped my hand. "It…would appear no…"

I knew what to do. I told the computer to put on lights, left Mom on my sleeping pad for safekeeping, and commed the doctor. Then I went to get Samantha. Turned out she was already awake.

"I heard your mom," she said. "Is it time, D'Argo?"

"Looks like. She's real scared, Samantha. She's not saying it, but she is."

"Second time is worse, they tell me," Samantha said. "You know what's coming. Wildman to Captain Janeway."

The captain didn't even sound like we'd woken her. "Yes, Ensign?"

"It's time."

"Wonderful. I'll find Jothee and meet you at holodeck two."

We went to get Mom, and I was proud of her. She was trying to keep it together, but I knew she was scared. We had to get her to the holodeck right away. I grabbed my blanket to bring with us, and we helped Mom up. Naomi was watching us.

"Can I come too?"

"No," said Samantha.

"But it's only a…"

"A full-on re-enactment of Wolf 359! Absolutely not!"

"But D'Argo gets to."

"Well, yes. But his mother is…well, she's…"

"She's Aeryn," Naomi said.

"Yes! Exactly!"

"And she's also going to strangle something with her bare hands if she doesn't get them on a pulse rifle soon," Mom interrupted, rubbing a hand into her side. "Let her come if she wants to, Samantha. Let's just go!"

The captain was in casual clothes, and full of smiles when we got there. "I'm really looking forward to this," she told Samantha as we got ourselves organized. "A hearty battle sim, a blessed event…nice to have a little action, isn't it?"

Samantha nodded. "Just program the Borg to not actually shoot at the children?"

Mom grabbed Jothee's sleeve. "And where do you think you're going?"

"Giant space fight? Helping my oldest, dearest friend hold off the hoards of bad guys?"

"Absolutely not. You get Z. You find John. And you bring him back here, before we're done. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Do you need a co-pilot? Perhaps Naomi would like another ride on Z," Samantha said. She was still trying to keep Naomi out of the Borg fight.

Naomi squealed in delight and ran off with Jothee. Mom was propped up against the corridor wall, doubled over.

The captain tipped up her head and met her eyes. "Aeryn."

"Yes, Captain."

"I've just received word that the Borg have penetrated our defenses. The ship has been boarded."

We stepped onto the holodeck, onto a bridge that was frelled. Wires poked out of everything, just like they had on our transport pod. The air stank of blood and guts and weapons. I could feel Mom's strength returning.

"Status?" she asked.

The captain checked a nearby display. "Heavy casualties on all tiers and multiple reports of phaser fire. We've been boarded, Officer."

"Frell. Survivors?"

"Making their way to main engineering."

"Divert them to sickbay," Samantha said. "Let's go…"

We moved through the ship like it was real, passing bodies and dead people, moving through empty corridors, shooting at shadows and picking up a few survivors. Some of them looked familiar.

"Is that Harry Kim?" I asked Samantha. The captain was helping a bloodied crewman to his feet, and I was sure I recognized him.

She nodded. "Some of the crew wanted to play along. It's been awhile since we've had a training exercise of this scale. And a few of them were actually at Wolf 359. I think they want to win this time."

It took nearly an arn to get to the sickbay, what with the corridor skirmishes and all that. Mom was a trouper, and got real into the sim. When we did reach the sickbay, the doctor was waiting for us, along with half a dozen 'survivors' who all looked like Voyager people, Paris, and Chakotay, and a few others. They had moved from a sort of reception office into the main area, and were blocking off a section with boxes of supplies.

"How many are we?" Mom asked.

"Ten, not counting D'Argo" said the captain.

"And how many are they?"

"At least forty."

"Entry points?"

"Just the one outer door," Chakotay said. "But two ways into this room from there, and they may try and come through the maintenance vents. We're trying to block off a section."

"Yes, I see that. Station two by each door, one by each vent…"

"Breach!" Paris called. "They're coming in!"

Mom doubled over. "Weapon!" she gasped. "Now!" Then she grabbed my arm. "Stay low. Stay hidden. Don't panic."

"Yes ma'am."

"Frell! This hurts…"

I ducked under the exam table and reached a hand up to massage her back. I felt her relax a little. I stayed low and watched the invaders come in.

They looked tall to me. Bits of metal glowed on them, and they had weapons coming out of attachments on their bodies. Mom grunted, then shot.

"Easy now," the doctor said.

"They've adapted to our phaser frequency," the captain reported.

Mom tweaked a few settings on her gun and shot again. She had obviously been practicing. She moved to shoot again, then gasped and lowered her weapon.

There was Dad, standing in the middle of the battle zone, with Jothee and Naomi. He looked around him, at the Borg, at Mom, at me. Then he walked up to Mom, smiled lovingly, and took her hand.

"Babe?"

"John?"

"What the FRELL is going on here?"

Captain Janeway pulled me out from my hiding spot. "I think," she said. "That this would be a very good time to say 'computer, pause program.'"

Captain Janeway got us out. Before we were even aware of what was happening, the transporter snagged us and we opened our eyes back in sickbay.

Two arns later, my sister was born. Mom tried to shoo me away, but I wasn't having any of that. I held one hand and Dad held the other, and we got the baby born like a family.

Mom relaxed into Dad's arms, snuggling. "I knew you'd come," she said. Then she turned to the captain. "Well? Did we win?"

--

I didn't remember falling asleep, but I woke up in the sickbay bed, tucked in with Mom. Dad was beside me.

"Hey buddy."

"Dad."

"Come walk with me."

I pushed carefully away from Mom and followed Dad out into the corridor. We walked together back to a room I was coming to recognize as the holodeck.

"I've got a surprise for you," he said. He was still whispering a little.

"Yeah?"

We went inside, and the Borg battle had all been cleaned up. Captain Janeway was sitting in the Garden Café, waiting for us.

"Had a long chat with the captain here," Dad said. "We cleared up a few things. And D, she told me how brave you were, how you launched the beacon, helped Mom, took care of things…"

"I was the co-pilot," I said.

"Yeah, you were. I'm so proud, D. You did good."

"Thanks."

"Yeah." He cleared his throat. "D, I had the captain make some updates in their database, about…well, have a look."

Captain Janeway slid a data pad across the table, and I recognized it as the book she told me they used in the Federation schools. It was the story about the Farscape Project, and it explained it for real this time, how it had been this great experiment, how it had changed, well, not humanity maybe, not right away, but one guy's life at least. And it hadn't been a disaster, it had been important, and it had led to adventure and discovery just like John Crichton had planned---well, okay, maybe not JUST like he'd planned, but it had led to that all the same. And it had a happy ending after all.

Last but not least, the story also noted---for the official record---the special place of one D'Argo Sun-Crichton in history, as the first known child born to a union between a human and another species. First contact. It was a long line from there---B'Elanna, Naomi, people like that. But I was the first, and everyone would know it now. I was part of the story of Earth.

Mom was ready to go home after that, but there was one more thing we still had to take care of. Naomi and Samantha and the captain and the rest of them came over to Moya to help us officially name the baby. Dad had wrapped her in a new blanket and laid her so she could see the stars. We had Pilot on one clamshell, and Z on the other, and everyone standing there.

Mom said "I'm terrible at doing this sort of thing. But…well, you all deserve a thank you, for helping D'Argo and me, and for getting us home. We…we hope you find yours too, Captain Janeway."

"Well, the wormhole information D'Argo gave us should get us there at least a half dozen years sooner," Captain Janeway said. "That boy is amazing, Aeryn."

"That he is. He is named for a dear, lost friend, and he has done his namesake proud. I love you, D."

"Love you too, Mom," I said.

Now, Dad spoke. "We want his sister to have a name which means just as much---to us, to her, to our family. We want her to have a name she can be proud of. And that's why we've chosen…to name her after you, Captain."

Captain Janeway looked stunned. "I…I don't know what to say."

"I don't know if I'll ever get back to Earth," Dad said. "And I don't know if D'Argo or his sister will either. But they'll have this at least: even if I never see home again, you guys will. And when you do, you'll tell them how the Farscape Project really ended. You'll give my children their place in things. There are no words for that, Captain. There are just no words."

He put his hand on my sister's face and gently coaxed open her eyes. "We name you Kathryn Sun-Crichton. Welcome to the world, little girl."

So, there was a party after that. Food and everything. Then everyone got back to where they were supposed to be. But that's pretty much the story, right there, about how my sister Kate was born and how I helped that happen.

THE END

Thank you so much for reading! I enjoyed reading all of your comments. This was such a fun fic to write!


End file.
